


Intermission 4: Parting Gifts

by writerx75



Series: Stuck [23]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Feels, Gen, Language, M/M, Sexual References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 17:24:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4885369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerx75/pseuds/writerx75
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, what <em>do</em> you do when you're moving to another dimension and leaving your old life behind?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intermission 4: Parting Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, all...no smut in this one, and no Renji, either (unfortunately!), but I think you'll enjoy it nonetheless. As always, all of these stories are recommended to read in order, but this one in particular needs it to make sense, I think!
> 
> Thanks to my editor-in-chief, [gwoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwoman/pseuds/gwoman), for her quick work on this piece.
> 
> Note: This series was written before/during the Winter War arc, and I set this story at some vague point in the future when (I assumed) things have gone back (more or less) to normal. Canon continues to be violated, and will be for the remainder of these stories. : )
> 
> Disclaimers: I don't own these characters and don't make any money for these writings; I'm just creating these stories to entertain myself and (hopefully) you.
> 
> The people in this story are fictional, and so you might see them doing things that aren't strictly safe from a sexual standpoint. You are a real person, so please be safe when you play! If you want more information about how that all works, please look [here](http://www.scarleteen.com/article/sexuality/safe_sound_sexy_a_safer_sex_how_to) or here...or there are plenty of other sites with good info on the web, too, so check them out and be safe.
> 
> Oh, yes, one more thing. All of the people depicted (or referred to) in sexual situations in my stories are intended and considered to be by the author of the legal age of consent in any jurisdiction, regardless of what age these characters may be in the material they are derived from. OK?

“It's just like a mystery novel,” Ichigo murmured to himself as he threw a pebble out into the river in front of him. “The kind where you need to figure out what to do with the body.”

He sighed as he looked around him once again, seeing the spot several meters away that he was sure was the place where his mother had died... where he had nearly died. He couldn't help but feel the same deep loss that he always did, coming here, but the intervening years had dulled the feeling to a shadow of its former self. Then, after a moment, he couldn't help but smirk when he realized that what he was considering now was the same sort of thing, really. _Kind of ironic_ he thought as he climbed back up to where the rest of Karakura was.

 _And there's that strange feeling again_ , he thought as he slowly walked through the center of town and over to where his apartment was. He'd been gone a little less than a month, yet everything that had happened during that time somehow made him feel like an outsider when he'd arrived back in town. Karakura, the _only_ place he'd lived his whole life, now felt as if it had gone on without him. It was as if he might be a friendly spirit visiting his old haunts, not someone coming home. In a way, it felt to him like he'd already left. He felt different pulls at his heart as he walked along familiar streets, passing places where memories called out to him, sometimes loudly, sometimes faintly, but all seeming somewhat distant to him now.

He found himself staring at the ring on his left hand as he climbed the stairs because it suddenly seemed more real to him than a lot of other things here. The gold band and the red stone both glinted at him as he opened his front door, juggling the handful of mail that had arrived over the few weeks he'd been away. The apartment felt still in the way a place does when no one's been living in it for a while, and Ichigo opened the sliding glass door slightly in order to air out the stuffiness.

Opening cupboards and his small refrigerator, Ichigo didn't spot anything that needed to be thrown out, but he did note that he was going to need more rice and a few other things since he'd be here for the next few days. _To wrap up my affairs_ , he thought wryly, and then started to feel overwhelmed at the idea. _It's not like my place in life will just disappear_ , he thought; it required figuring out what to do with internships, possessions, and then about his family...

Ichigo sighed as he sat down on his bed, feeling a wave of nostalgia as he looked around the small apartment. _This is where it all started_ he found himself thinking as he looked at the mirror, the sink in his small kitchen area, the chair in the corner, the desk, then back at the bed...hell, practically every corner of the apartment had been christened. How could he leave this? How could he leave everything else?

Sinking down into the mattress, Ichigo suddenly felt exhausted. Sleepily, he looked over at the strong afternoon light coming through the blinds. _It's still pretty hot outside_ , he considered, _maybe it would be better to nap for a while until it cools off..._  
________________________________________________________

Ichigo groaned as he rolled over, his mind still chasing the end of a dream, unable to remember anything other than the feeling at the end, kind of solid and happy, as if he'd done someone a good turn. As he blinked and then fully opened his eyes, Ichigo realized he'd probably slept a couple of hours, due to the current angle of the afternoon light.

He moved to sit on the edge of the bed and yawned, stretching widely and trying to throw off the last of his sleep. It was as he rubbed his eyes that it came to him, and for a moment all Ichigo could do was grin like an idiot. He'd figured out what to do, he realized, and was suddenly galvanized into action, getting himself back together to go out again, quickly sorting through the pile of mail and throwing the junk away, then shutting the sliding glass again.

Unable to help smiling to himself as he galloped down the stairs some minutes later, Ichigo jingled the keys in his pocket as he reached the door outside and then turned in the direction of the Kurosaki clinic.  
________________________________________________________

“Son! Go get scrubbed up and help your old man!” Isshin called out.

Ichigo blocked the punch that otherwise would have hit him in the jaw. “Nice to see you, too, dad,” he replied sarcastically. From what he could see of the situation in the waiting room, however, he could tell his dad wasn't kidding, so he went ahead and got ready to assist.

It wasn't until a couple of hours later, an hour later than the clinic usually closed, that they began to perform the usual tasks to clean up from the day's work and prepare for the next day's appointments. Ichigo had been checking each examining room to be sure they were ready for tomorrow when he felt a sharp whack on the back of his head.

“You draft me to help you, and this is the thanks I get?” Ichigo asked, turning quickly to squarely land a punch on Isshin's shoulder.

His father rocked back a step, and then rubbed the spot where the hit had landed. “My son! You've gotten so strong! Your mother would be proud!”

Ichigo sighed and followed Isshin to his small office, listening while he started speaking to the picture on his desk. Finally, Ichigo cut into his father's monologue.

“So, dad, it looks like it's been really busy around here,” he began, watching Isshin's face for a reaction.

“Yes, it seems like the patients got used to having the both of us here,” Isshin replied, still distracted by the picture. “Oh, Masaki! You should have seen the wallop your son gave me today!”

“Dad!” Ichigo called out, exasperated now. With that, he did manage to get his father's attention, for however a brief time period. “I came over here today because I have a proposition for you, about getting you some help since I won't be here soon. You'd have to train him, probably for a long time, but I think he'd work hard for you.”

To Ichigo's surprise, his father looked at him seriously for a moment. “Keep talking,” Isshin replied.

Ichigo smiled then. _Maybe this is going to work out_ he thought as he explained the plan to his father.  
________________________________________________________

“So, you're staying for dinner, right?” Isshin said as he clapped his hand on Ichigo's back, much harder than necessary.

Returning the favor so hard that he made Isshin cough, Ichigo replied, “Sure, dad, but I won't be able to stay late. I need to get over to Urahara's.”

“Ah,” Isshin said, nodding and looking serious for a moment. “Good luck with that. For now, though, let's see what your darling sister has made for dinner!”

Ichigo rolled his eyes as he watched his father turn into a big idiot again, and followed him over to the Kurosaki house.

The girls were both happy to see him, even though Karin tried to be cool about it, and the four of them spent dinner largely talking about how college was going for the girls. They were both doing very well; Yuzu was taking medical courses and Karin was majoring in business, but most of what Karin talked about was playing on the soccer team. It wasn't until near the end of the meal that Ichigo found out that Isshin had told his sisters about the wedding, so he was forced to give them his account and answer all their questions.

“Oh, that sounds so beautiful!” Yuzu said, resting her chin on her hands and looking off into the distance. “I just wish you could have had it here!”

“Yeah, I'm sure your friends here are going to be mad when they hear you got married over there,” Karin said, smirking just a little bit.

“Well, if someone didn't have such a big mouth,” Ichigo replied, glaring at Isshin for a moment before he continued. “Besides, it's not legal here, anyway.”

“Oh, but I've heard of some places where you can have a ceremony anyway, even if it's not official,” Yuzu said, her face lighting up, and Ichigo listened with a smile of his own as he realized that his sister had been looking into this since she'd heard about what he and Renji were planning.

He said his goodbyes not long afterwards and made his way to Urahara's. Even the trip there seemed to kick up old memories for him right now, and Ichigo found himself in a strange mood as he entered the courtyard in front of the closed-up shop. After he got a little closer, however, he saw that it wasn't quite closed up yet, as if someone knew he'd been coming.

“Ah, Kurosaki-san,” Urahara said to him the moment he'd walked inside, and Ichigo felt a little chill on his neck. How was it that this man seemed to know everything? He could feel his eyes narrowing as he returned the shopkeeper's shadowed glance.

“Urahara,” he replied, nodding. He wasn't sure how to begin, but the other man started talking before he could form his next words.

“You look like you're here on a mission, Kurosaki-san. Is there something you need, or someone you came here to see?”

Urahara let his words trail off a little near the end of his final sentence, somehow making it sound like he was well aware of why Ichigo had come. Trying to stuff his annoyance down, Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck before responding.

“Yes, actually. I was hoping I could see Kon.”

He looked back at Urahara as he fell silent again, his eyes full of questions. In actuality, this was the first place he'd thought to look because he had no real idea where Kon was these days. Urahara, for his part, looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded.

“I think he's here,” the shopkeeper said. Gesturing to one of the inner rooms of the shop, Urahara continued, “Why don't you come in and have some tea? I'll send him along to talk to you.”

Ichigo couldn't help feeling a little surprised, but he knew he probably shouldn't be. The shopkeeper seemed able to keep anything around him that he thought he might have a future use for, and it was that realization that had caused Ichigo to come here looking for Kon in the first place.

The shop was quiet enough that Ichigo could feel an occasional tremor running through the floor, which usually meant that some combatants were going at it pretty hard downstairs. He sipped his tea and wondered who might be training, but then realized that he'd been waiting long enough that the tea was going cold. Wondering how much longer he should stay until he figured that Kon had decided not to speak to him, Ichigo shifted a little and almost missed the tiny face appearing near the bottom of the slightly open sliding door.

As he went still, Ichigo watched as Kon slowly made his way into the room. “Oi, Ichigo,” Kon said after a moment, his voice sounding a bit rusty and unused.

“Hi, Kon,” he replied, trying to sound neutral, but he felt a spike of guilt all of a sudden as he fully took in Kon's condition.

As the little lion hopped up onto the low table, Ichigo could see that a lot of the fuzz had been worn off his front and back paws, leaving them discolored and threadbare. One of his arms had obviously been pulled too enthusiastically by someone, and a few of the stitches holding it to his shoulder had popped out, leaving a small hole for stuffing to poke through. The lion's right eye was hanging by some threads and it dangled over his cheek, causing Kon to cant his head a bit in order to get a good look at Ichigo.

“You look like you're doing well,” Kon said, his voice sounding hollow. “Actually, I hear I should be congratulating you.”

Ichigo found himself looking down into his tea. “Yeah, well, I guess so,” he replied, feeling like he really didn't want to talk about his own good fortune at the moment.

“Well, it's not my thing, as you know, but if you guys are happy, that's all that matters,” Kon continued, his voice sounding bluff now.

“Thanks,” Ichigo replied, swallowing against a suddenly dry throat. “How are you?” he found he couldn't help but add.

“Oh, I'm busy here, really busy! Urahara always has something he needs me to do; I wonder how he made it without me,” Kon replied, continuing his blustering tone.

“Well, that's good,” Ichigo said, wondering now if his idea was going to work out, but he continued to listen as Kon went on.

“Yeah, it's great!” Kon answered, and suddenly Ichigo heard the anger in his voice. “He always has these crazy spying missions he wants me to go on, and they usually involve me getting chewed on by slobbery dogs! Then, when I get back, he sighs with disappointment and says 'oh, that's just what I thought.' He drives me crazy! He's told me for years now that he'd build me a gigai if I did a bunch of things for him, but somehow it seems I can never do enough. I think now I've realized that it's never going to happen.”

He glared at Ichigo for a moment, but then his anger seemed to evaporate. “I was really pissed off at you for a long time, Ichigo, but now I see...well, fuck, I deserved what happened.”

Ichigo was speechless now, having gone from feeling like he was going to have to defend himself to now having his stomach feel as if it had dropped out onto the floor because of Kon's story. He said nothing and just continued to listen.

“I know you think I'm unreliable, and I know it's for good reason, but, well, let me just tell you, you living people have no idea how good you have it. I mean, I guess I should consider myself lucky; I can walk around – even if I'm way shorter than everyone else and I always have to dodge feet – and I can see, well, sort of,” Kon continued, poking at his fallen eye and making it swing on its threads, “and I can talk and hear. But that's about it.

“When I first got into your body...hell, just the _colors_ you can see are amazing. And then, when you get over that, the smells, and don't even get me started with eating and drinking. And talking to people and really interacting with them, and sex-” he cut off what he was saying to shoot Ichigo a look, “which I only ever had with myself when I was in your body! Don't _glare_ at me like that; if you were in my shoes, you would have tried it, too.”

After a moment, Kon continued. “Anyway, what I'm really getting at is that when I got into your body, there were so many things I wasn't used to, so many delicious smells and amazing sights and everything that I'd get completely distracted by them. I know, I know, it's no excuse, but that's really what happened. And then that day...”

Kon trailed off for a moment and Ichigo wondered if he was done talking, but he finally glanced back up with a determined look and continued to speak. “I was goofing off, as usual, but then I saw her. Shimizu Miyu.”

After Kon said her name the room seemed immensely quiet again and Ichigo watched as the lion looked down at his threadbare paws before he spoke again. “She'd dropped her schoolbooks, and you would have expected her to be upset or angry, but when I saw her, she was smiling this calm, beautiful smile, as if nothing could ever go wrong again in the world. I started to think that maybe you had some health problems you'd never mentioned, because my heart started to beat so fast I thought it was going to give out and my face was all hot and everything, but then I figured that if I wasn't going to make it that I should at least try to meet her before I died. So, I went over to help her pick her books up, and then she was smiling at me like that.”

He paused again and Ichigo had to look away, because even in that stuffed animal body, the look on Kon's face seemed too raw and real to look at for very long. Kon's voice seemed sort of muffled when he continued.

“It made me feel like some kind of... I don't know. Like I could do anything. Like I _would_ do anything, for her. I know it sounds ridiculous to say, but I knew that... she was the one for me.” The last was said just barely above a whisper, but somehow Ichigo heard it anyway, and felt a huge wave of guilt wash over him. Kon spoke a little louder as he said, “I knew I had to see her again, so I told her I'd come when I could, but then-”

After waiting a couple minutes to see if Kon had any more to say, Ichigo finally cleared his throat and responded. “You know, when I ran into her that day, Kon, I really didn't know what to say. Unfortunately, it was also around the same time that I was figuring out that I didn't... like girls that way, and I know I didn't deal with it well, or with you later. I'm really-” Ichigo broke off, unable to quite choke out an apology, but knowing the word was hanging in the air between the two of them anyway as pictures flashed in his mind of the last time he'd spoken to Kon before today, convinced the mod soul was trying to make an idiot out of him and, feeling unable to trust his body to Kon any longer, how he'd told Kon to go.

He looked up and somehow knew the same thoughts were going through Kon's head. “Once I heard about you and Renji, the whole thing made a lot more sense. I wasn't trying to play you for a fool, though, I just... Fuck, I was an idiot.”

The word that was unable to make an appearance seemed to loom even larger between the two of them, but Kon managed to ignore it and keep speaking. “You know, I actually saw Miyu-chan the other day. I was in the subway, hitching a ride in someone's backpack when I spotted her. She'd dropped all her books again, which she admitted the day I met her that she did an awful lot, and she had that beautiful smile on her face again. I wanted to go to her; I would have done anything if I could have just helped her pick her books up again, but there was nothing I could do. She wouldn't even have recognized me like this,” Kon concluded, lifting his paws up in front of him.

Silence seemed to take over once more. Kon kept staring at his paws and Ichigo found he was having trouble formulating what he wanted to say. Finally, he just started talking, deciding that he'd be better off blurting it out rather than never saying it.

“Although I'm glad we finally talked about this,” Ichigo began, “I know there's nothing either one of us can do to change what's happened. Really, though, that's not why I came here in the first place.”

Kon looked over at Ichigo then. “Yeah, I have to admit I was kind of curious why you _did_ come here,” the lion murmured, obviously interested to hear what the young man was going to say.

Ichigo let out a little nervous breath, and then continued. “Well, I don't know how much you've heard about what's going on these days, but along with getting married, I've decided I'm going to move to Soul Society – permanently.”

Nodding, Kon commented, “I guess that makes sense,” and waited for Ichigo to continue.

Sighing, Ichigo went on, figuring he was going to have to spell it out. “So, seeing as I'm not going to need it anymore, I wanted to know if you wanted to live in this body from now on.”

Ichigo had to glance away then, because from the look on the mod soul's face, if he had been able to manage it in a plushie body, he would probably have been crying. The look of disbelief, shock, and happiness that Kon didn't seem to think he should be feeling had been almost scalding, and Ichigo struggled to figure out how to bring things back onto safer ground. Finally, he smiled as an idea came to him.

“It's not like it would be easy, though! I'd expect you to watch over my family and friends, take care of my obligations, and not act like a total fool since everyone would think you were me, understand?”

“You act like you don't think I'm up to it, but I bet I could do better at all of that stuff than you,” Kon replied, but although he was trying to call up his bluff tone, his voice was soft and sounded a little strangled instead. “I won't let you down this time,” he finally said, barely louder than a whisper.

“I know,” Ichigo said, his voice near the same level. “I know you won't.” After pausing to swallow, Ichigo added in a brisk tone, “Let's find Urahara and let him know we're getting out of here so I can start showing you the ropes.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments about what you liked and what you thought could be improved would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading!
> 
> -WriterX


End file.
